Wednesday, April 08, 2015

In December 2009, a US drone strike killed the brother and son of Pakistani man Haji Abdul Karim Khan. Since then, he's been fighting for justice through the courts. And now it seems he might finally get some:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) directed on Tuesday the Secretariat police station to register a case against former CIA station chief Jonathan Banks for his alleged role in a surgical strike that killed the family members of an anti-drone activist.

The court directed Islamabad Police Chief IGP Tahir Alam to register a case against the former CIA official for killing innocent civilians in drone strikes.

Haji Abdul Karim Khan, a native of Mirali, North Waziristan, had requested the court to register an FIR after his relatives, including his son Zahinullah and brother Asif Iqbal, and other civilians were killed in a drone attack in December 31, 2009.

The Pakistani government have apparently been dragging their feet on this, refusing to open a case because it would harm diplomatic relations. Earlier this year they even had him disappeared to prevent him from testifying to the European Parliament about drone strikes. But they're running out of places to hide. Hopefully this means that the law will be enforced, and that we'll soon see an extradition order so this CIA murderer can stand trial.